Oregon Garden caching in on high tech tourism

The contents of a Geocache is rarely what one would consider treasure in the classic sense, but enthusiasts say the tech hunt is worth the effort anyway. This find at The Oregon Garden contains business cars, key chains and other items of interest.(Photo: Timm Collins / Appeal Tribune, Timm Collins / Appeal Tribune)Buy Photo

After several minutes of searching with his parents and sister near a path at The Oregon Garden, the 8-year-old said he needed a hint.

His mother, Beth said, "You should be able to reach it from the trail. Look closer to your feet."

The boy shortened range, bent down a little bit and pointed.

"That's it," he said. "Yay! We found another one."

Mom followed Noah's finger.

There, at the base of a section of tall grass, was a sandwiched-sized plastic box holding writing material, a key chain and some assorted trinkets. Written across the top in black marker were, "GEOCACHE" and "DO NOT REMOVE."

The Robersons are just one example of a new group of visitors The Oregon Garden and the Oregon Garden Resort are bringing to the area, and one could say they are truly caching in on the idea.

"It's a great deal, especially with lunch included, because it gives me just one less thing to worry about," Beth Roberson said. "And because everything is close to the trail, I'm not worried about my kids wandering into poison oak or some other catastrophe."

Roberson said she and her husband, Daniel, booked their trip because of the geocaching and said it was perfect for people without a huge vacation budget.

Brittney Hatteberg, marketing manager for The Oregon Garden, said the resort has booked more than 100 overnight stays because of the all-inclusive geocaching package, which the garden has offered since spring.

In its simplest form, geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt that uses smartphones and global positioning satellites to locate a hidden prize.

The typical find is never treasure in the classic sense; very rarely does one find gold coins or jewels, but instead a container of trinkets and other knickknacks meant to be souvenirs from the outdoor excursion. A common cache is usually a weather-tight box containing anything from bottle caps to currency.

The coordinates to 10 caches at the Oregon Garden can be found on a geocaching website and are free to find once you've paid the regular admission. A password can be found under the lid of each cache, and treasure hunters receive a commemorative pin and a chance to win a an overnight stay either at the Garden or a sister property, the Village Green Resort in Cottage Grove.

For $5 you can get one of three lists of five additional private caches that can't be found on the official website.

"Kids maybe don't get out into nature as much as they used to, so this is is a great way to tie in technology with nature," Hatteberg said. "We are finding that most kids really enjoy it, and it is a great way to get out and learn about all the things the Garden has to offer."

Hatteberg said the Garden saw the success Travel Lane County has had with its geocaching travel plans and thought it would be good match with Garden guests.

The Lane County Visitors Association has Eugene, Cascades and Coast Geo Tours with upwards of 143 caches in Florence, Eugene and around Lane County.

"We also talked a lot with geocaching.com to find out what would work best for us." she said.

Stacy Palmer with the Silverton Chamber of Commerce said she first heard about geocaching about 10 years ago but it's only since people started using smartphones that it has become more than a blip on the tourism industry's radar.

"With the use of cellphones, geocaching isn't just for the gadget geek and tech nerds anymore," Palmer said. "These points of interest are available for all ages and walks of life."

Palmer said she has been so impressed by the success at the garden that she is looking into doing even more geocaching tours in the area and possibly a joint marketing campaign with Mt. Angel.

Palmer said the groups are in the discovery phase and that geocaching promotion could be tied to specific events.

Visitors to the Garden don't need a smartphone or their own GPS. The Garden will rent hand-held GPS devices for $20 a day.

Hatteburg said the Garden is working on a plan to map the entire area using GPS so visitors can locate certain points of interest and eventually search for specific plants.

"We are mapping each rock, each path, each perennial and flower bed so eventually you can go to our website and learn how to finds what's blooming on that particular day and find exactly where it is," she said. "It will be a very robust database."

Hattebeurg said the garden has used geocaching as an education tool for years with the Garden's junior gardeners club, and with more people taking up the hobby everyday, it seemed like an opportunity.

"It seemed like a positive thing for families so it seemed like a natural move to roll it out a larger project for visitors," Hatteberg said.

History of geocaching

In 2000, the U.S. government lifted the ban on select availability for GPS devices used by civilians. This meant that civilians could pinpoint locations with 10 times the accuracy than previously possible, and this opened the door of possibility to activities such as geocaching.

Within 24 hours, the first GPS stash, now called a geocache, was hidden in Beavercreek, Oregon by Dave Ulmer. He posted the cache's coordinates online with the instructions to "Get some Stuff, Leave some Stuff!!" and within a few days, several people had found the hidden treaseure and and shared their experience online.

Today geocaching is an international phenomena with millions participating in variations of the game, including virtual caches, offset caches, puzzle caches and multi-stage caches where one cache leads to another.

As the use of smartphones has expanded, so has the hunt. According to Geocaching.com, there are more than 33,000 caches ready to be found in Oregon alone.